Shojiro Iida

Shojiro Iida (8 August 1888-23 January 1980) was a Lieutenant-General of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.

Biography
Shojiro Iida was born on 8 August 1888 in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan and served in the Siberian Intervention of the Russian Civil War with the Imperial Japanese Army. At the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Iida was appointed Chief-of-Staff of the Japanese 1st Army in Cnia, and from 1938 to 1939 he commanded the Japanese Taiwan Army. In 1941, he took command of the Japanese 25th Army in French Indochina, and on 8 December 1941 he led the Japanese invasion of Thailand, forcing Thailand to join the Axis Powers. In 1942, Iida was the first Japanese commander in Burma, and on 8 March 1942 he took Rangoon from the United Kingdom and cut the Burma Raod with 7,000 losses; the UK lost 30,000 men. In 1943, Masakazu Kawabe replaced Iida as the commander of the Japanese forces in Burma, and Iida was recalled to Burma. He retired in 1944, but in 1945 he was recalled to lead the Japanese 30th Army in Manchukuo during Operation August Storm. From 1945 to 1950, Iida was held as a prisoner by the Soviet Union, and he died in Tokyo in 1980 at the age of 91.